Written by D-Mitch
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| The two coastal patrol vessels of the Belgian Navy |
The Belgian Navy, officially the Belgian Maritime Component (Marinecomponent) of the Belgian Armed Forces, provides the maritime component of Belgium’s defence capabilities. The Naval Component of the Belgian Armed Forces consists currently of two frigates, five mine hunters, two offshore patrol vessels, one command and support ship and one oceanographic ship, all located in the Belgian naval base in Zeebrugge. The Navy also operates a sail training ship, a number of tugs and a large number of rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs), the majority of them carried by the naval units. It is a small but modern and very capable naval force and will be even more capable in the future thanks to two major projects which will provide six new multi-mission large minehunters and two multi-mission frigates. In this article we will analyze the patrol boats.